How to audit a website: the checklist, including the part the tools skip
· 9 min read
A website audit answers two questions. Can people reach the page and use it? And once they read it, will they act on what it says?
Free tools answer the first question well. They weren't built for the second. A page can load fast, rank, work on every phone, and still say nothing a stranger would act on.
This checklist covers both. Part 1 is the technical basics, one line each, with the free Google tools that check them. Part 2 is the copy and the customer journey, in depth, worked through on a real page: our own klarnio.com/website-grader, audited on 6 October 2026.
One thing to know up front: Klarnio, our product, does Part 2 and only Part 2. For Part 1, use the tools named below.
Before you start: pick one page and write down its job
Don't audit a whole site at once. Start with the page that does the most selling: the homepage, or the page your ads point to.
Then write one sentence: what should a first-time visitor do on this page? Book a call, ask for a quote, start a trial. Every check below is measured against that one action.
You need a phone, a private browser window, PageSpeed Insights, access to your site's Search Console, and a spreadsheet with four columns: page, check, pass or fail, fix. That spreadsheet is your website audit template. Add a row for every check below.
Part 1: The technical checklist
These are the checks the usual audit tools run. Do them first. If the page doesn't load or can't be found, nothing it says gets read.
Speed
Run the page through PageSpeed Insights. It tests mobile and desktop separately and reports the Core Web Vitals: how fast the main content appears, how quickly the page responds to a tap, and how much the layout jumps while it loads. Fix what it marks as poor, starting with mobile. If the page doesn't get much traffic yet, you'll only see the lab test, which estimates these from a single simulated load.
Mobile
Open the page on your own phone, not a narrow desktop window. Check that you can read without zooming, tap every button with a thumb, and reach the main action without hunting for it.
Indexing
In Search Console, the Page indexing report shows which pages Google has indexed and why others aren't. Paste your most important URL into URL Inspection to see whether it's on Google, and whether a noindex tag or a robots.txt rule is keeping it out. Check that your sitemap is submitted and that each page points to one canonical URL.
Security and broken links
The page should load on HTTPS with no browser warning. Click every link in the menu and the footer. A link that lands on an error page is a five-minute fix, and it costs trust until it's fixed.
Forms and the main action
Submit every form yourself with a real address, and check that the email or notification actually arrives. Click the main button on mobile and on desktop. A form that fails silently looks exactly like a page nobody wants.
Accessibility basics
Check that images that carry meaning have alt text, that text has enough contrast to read on a phone in daylight, and that you can reach the main action with the keyboard alone.
Part 2: The content audit, the part the tools skip
Part 1 tells you whether a visitor can get to the page. It doesn't tell you whether they'll act once they've read it. That depends on what the page says, sentence by sentence, and on whether it answers the questions the visitor arrived with. No speed score measures that.
We'll work through it on a real page: klarnio.com/website-grader, the page we built for people searching "website grader". Klarnio audited it on 6 October 2026. It scored 35 out of 100 on copy and 61 out of 100 on the customer journey. Every quote below is taken word for word from that page and that audit.
Step 1: List what the page actually says
Before you judge anything, list it: every heading, every button and link, every price, every form.
It sounds tedious. It stops one specific mistake: calling something "missing" when it's on the page and you skimmed past it. Klarnio builds this list with code before it judges a single sentence, and checks every "missing" finding against it.
For the grader page, the list came back as 13 headings, 13 buttons and links, a form, and no prices. Keep that last one in mind for Step 4.
Step 2: Test every claim with three questions
Go through every claim on the page, meaning any sentence that tells the reader something, and ask three questions. We explain each one in depth in Website traffic but no leads? Read your own sentences first. In short:
- Can the visitor picture it? (Visualise)
- Could anyone prove it wrong? (Falsify)
- Could only you say it? (Ownable)
A claim passes only if it passes all three. The grader page makes 39 claims, and 15 of them pass. The score is 35 rather than 38 (15 of 39), because Klarnio weights each claim by where it sits: the first screen counts for more than the FAQ.
Here is one failure for each question, from the grader page.
Visualise. The FAQ answers "Can I grade a client's website?" like this:
"Yes. The report is built to be handed to them."
"Built to be handed to them" describes nothing a reader can see. The audit's rewrite:
"Yes. The report quotes your client's own sentences and gives each one a replacement, so you can hand it over as it is."
Now the reader can picture the thing they would hand over.
Falsify. The "how it works" section shows our homepage headline as an example:
"Your website has 30 seconds to say something worth acting on."
Nobody can check a 30-second figure. It's also the headline of our own homepage, which makes this one uncomfortable to publish. The rewrite replaces it with something anyone can verify:
"Graded on 28 September 2026, our own homepage scored 42 of 100 on copy: 30 of 65 claims passed all three rules."
Ownable. The headline of the page:
"A website grader that reads your words."
Any copy tool could put "reads your words" on its own site. The rewrite names what this page goes on to show it does:
"A website grader that quotes the exact sentences on your page a visitor will not act on."
Step 3: Check the three questions every visitor brings
Sentences are half of it. The other half is whether the page answers what a first-time visitor is quietly asking, in this order: Is this about my problem? Can I trust it? What happens after I say yes?
Turn each question into checks you can mark yes or no. These are the checks Klarnio runs, with the grader page's result:
Is this about my problem? (Struggle)
33
What to check
2 of 6 met. The reader's situation, the problem named plainly, what made them search today, what waiting costs, the problem before the product, one clear reader.
Can I trust it? (Evaluation)
100
What to check
7 of 7 met. A price, what's included, proof, the risk taken away, a comparison, one clear next step, the "will it work for me" question answered.
What happens after I say yes? (Growth)
50
What to check
3 of 6 met. The first steps, how soon something useful arrives, who helps when you're stuck, what success looks like later, an upgrade path, a customer followed over time.
The grader page passes every trust check and still loses on the first question. (The price check passes because the free audit is priced at free; the paid plans carry no figure, which is where Step 4 comes in.) Two of the audit's notes explain why:
"The first screen opens with the product, "A website grader that reads your words.", and the reader's own problem never appears above the fold."
"Nothing says what happened that made the reader go looking today: a launch, a flat month, a client complaint, a redesign about to ship."
This is the pattern to look for on your own page. Trust checks are the familiar ones: a price, a testimonial, a clear button. A page can have all of them and still give a visitor no reason to act today rather than next month.
Step 4: Write each fix as a replacement sentence
A note like "make the pricing clearer" leaves the hard part, the sentence, to whoever reads it. For every claim that failed, write the line you would put in its place.
When the new sentence needs a fact you don't have, leave a visible blank instead of guessing. Remember the empty price list from Step 1? This is the grader page's pricing heading:
"The diagnosis is free. You pay for the prescription."
"The diagnosis is free. The full action plan, fix prompt, interview kit and job statement start at PRICE."
The page never states a price, so the audit didn't invent one. It left a marked gap to fill from the real price list. Do the same on your own page: a blank you fill from records beats a number you made up.
Step 5: Fix the first screen first
Put the fixes in order of where they sit: the headline and the first screen, then the section headings, then the body. That's the order a visitor reads in, and it's how Klarnio weights its score.
Fix one page properly before you start on the next. The first screen of your most important page is where every visitor starts, so it's where a fix reaches the most people.
The website audit checklist, in one place
Copy this into your spreadsheet, one row per item:
- Write down the page's one job: the action a first-time visitor should take.
- Speed: PageSpeed Insights, mobile first. Fix anything marked poor.
- Mobile: read it, tap it and find the main action on a real phone.
- Indexing: Search Console Page indexing and URL Inspection. No stray noindex, sitemap submitted, one canonical URL.
- Security and links: HTTPS with no warning, no broken links in the menu or footer.
- Forms: submit each one yourself and confirm the message arrives.
- Accessibility basics: alt text, readable contrast, the main action reachable by keyboard.
- List what the page says: headings, buttons and links, prices, forms.
- Test every claim: can a visitor picture it, could anyone prove it wrong, could only you say it?
- Check the three questions: is this about my problem, can I trust it, what happens after I say yes?
- Write replacement sentences, with a visible blank wherever a fact is missing.
- Fix the first screen first, then the section headings, then the body.
What Klarnio does, and what it doesn't
Klarnio does items 8 to 12. Paste a URL and it opens the page in a real browser, lists what's on it, tests every claim, scores the three visitor questions, and writes replacement sentences, leaving a blank wherever your page doesn't give the fact.
It does not measure speed, check indexing, submit your forms, or check accessibility and security. PageSpeed Insights and Search Console are free and do those well. Run them too.
Frequently asked questions
What is a website content audit?
In SEO, a content audit usually means listing every page with its traffic and deciding what to keep, update or remove. This post's Part 2 is narrower and deeper: it reads what one page says and asks whether a stranger would act on it. Both are useful. They answer different questions.
How often should you audit a website?
Run the technical checks after any redesign, migration or major plugin update. Run the content audit whenever your offer, your price or your audience changes. A page that hasn't changed in a year can end up describing a business that has.
Can I use this checklist on a client's website?
Yes. Part 2 is easy to show a client, because it quotes their own sentences back to them and every fix is a sentence they can read. Leave the blanks visible, so the client fills in the real numbers. To turn the gaps into questions for a sales call, see sales discovery questions, written from the prospect's own website.
Run Part 2 on your page
You can do everything above by hand. Or paste your URL into Klarnio and it does items 8 to 12 for you: it quotes your own sentences back to you, marks the ones that fail, and writes what to say instead. Where a rewrite needs a fact your page doesn't give, it leaves a blank rather than inventing one.
It's free, needs no account, just your email, and takes two to three minutes.